Graduation and Life

Some of you may not know that Laura is going to graduate with her masters in educational administration from Covenant College at Lookout Mountain, Georgia this Saturday. We will travel Friday and enjoy the festivities on Saturday. What an amazing milestone, especially what Laura’s had to battle this past year and a half. The boys and I are very proud of her for pushing through and not giving up in the midst of challenging circumstances.

We’ve celebrated the one-year anniversary of Laura’s bone marrow transplant and now we gear up for another celebration. As I’ve thought through the past year, I find myself grateful and amazed. At the same time, I’ve also had moments of tears. I took Laura out to dinner to celebrate her transplant anniversary and we were reminiscing about what life was like last year. She shared, “Remember when I had to carry around that backpack of fluid 24 hours a day and I had to take it to the restroom and had to sleep with it.” Some things I forget but some things I remember very well. What I do remember is putting all my energy into feeling hopeful and not giving up. One year later though, I’m finding that I still have some grieving to do about that time. So Sunday morning I spent about 15 minutes just crying and remembering how at times I felt very scared and sad.

I share that to let you know how Laura and I sometimes feel but also to teach you about how people grieve through painful and stressful situations. Sometimes our hearts can’t take everything at once so a we divert to a later time. Even a year later I still feel some pain. I’ll drive by the hospital sometimes and get tears in my eyes. Recently Micah and I were sitting at a Starbucks outside (imagine ME sitting at a Starbucks? ). I asked Micah how he feels when he looks at the hospital which we could see from where we were sitting. He said he feels sad for mom and what she had to go through. We spent a little time talking about that and remembering. We need to do that occasionally just to keep close accounts on our hearts and make sure we grieve. I’ve been struggling with a lot of anger lately and part of it is related to keeping up with my emotions.

So the next time you go through a difficult time and it passes and you are thinking about it a year later, don’t be surprised if you need to take some time and cry. Crying and worshiping God are one of the most important ways to take care of our hearts well. Thanks as always for your responses to these entries and your encouraging words. You help lighten our hearts and remind us of how valued and loved we are. We love you!

Brad